Girlfriends (A Podcast for Catholic Women)

What is your relationship with Mary like? Do you struggle sometimes to feel close to our mother in heaven? Author Marge Fenelon writes extensively about Mary, from personal experience and from a historical perspective. Her newest book is My Queen, My Mother: A Living Novena. She joins me for a conversation about this book and others this week. Check out all of Marge’s work at her website, MargeFen...

Failure feels terrible. Maybe you didn’t get a job you applied for, maybe your idea for a school fundraiser was a total dud, or maybe you just got impatient and yelled at your kids. Again. When we fail, we are sometimes tempted to live in denial or drown our sorrows in unhealthy ways, but this week I want to invite you to spend some time thinking about healthy ways to respond to failure—so we can...

This week’s show was recorded live on Facebook with listeners interacting with me live as I recorded. This was a fun way to do the show and I hope you enjoy listening to it, even after the fact. We talked about the topic of sharing your faith with non-believing family and friends. How can we avoid conflict and share authentically in a way that might inspire others to explore the Faith themselves?...

My daughter got married last weekend, and despite all the planning that goes into weddings, we survived! In fact, I enjoyed it! I am so grateful to God for the gift of this blessed event and all that we enjoyed in the process of planning and hosting. When I shared photos on Facebook and Instagram, many people asked me to do a podcast about wedding planning … so here you go! Snippet from the Show “...

This week I am excited to share a recent conversation I had with my friend, author Katie Curtis. Katie is a wife, mom, and author of The Wideness of the Sea, a beautiful novel about a young woman’s life transition in her career and among her family members and romantic interests. I loved reading this book recently and know you will enjoy it too! Katie is working on a second novel, even as she rais...

Do you struggle in friendships? So many of us do. But I am a firm believer in the idea that if you want a good friend you should be a good friend. So in that spirit, this week, I am sharing five things that good friends do. Snippet from the Show “It’s a beautiful opportunity we have that God allows us to pray for other people. Good friends approach their relationships in prayer.” SHOWNOTES Good fr...

This week I am chatting with one of my heroes, author Colleen Carroll Campbell about her newest book, The Heart of Perfection: How the Saints Taught Me to Trade My Dream of Perfect for God’s. Colleen shares about life as a wife, mom, and successful author, speaker, and media personality, and the ways in which she was brought to a deeper understanding of God’s love for her through her struggles wit...

This week I am answering a question from listener Erin who wants to know how to get herself to do the things she wants to do. We all struggle with making good habits. We have values and priorities, but sometimes when it comes to following through, we need what Erin calls a “kick in the pants.” Snippet from the Show “God wants us to set reasonable goals out of self-love, not self-loathing.” SHOWNOT...

This is the show you’ve been waiting for! This week, my husband Dan joins me on the show for an original interview—the first male guest we’ve ever had on Girlfriends. Dan takes readers’ questions from Instagram, discussing pregnant women, complementarity between the sexes, and even foul language. And then Dan tackles the same topic we discussed last week from my point of view—discipline. Dan share...

In anticipation of next week’s show, when my husband Dan will be coming on to share about discipline, I thought this week I would share my own perspective on effective discipline. At the beginning of this episode, I mention a new video series on Divine Mercy from Fr. Chris Alar!! If you don't know much about Divine Mercy, or you want to learn more, check out this free video series at ascensionpres...

Do you know that next Sunday we will observe Divine Mercy Sunday? This time of year is a wonderful opportunity to focus on Jesus’ gift of Divine Mercy. I mention Fr. Chris Alan in today’s episode, and I just found out that he has created a video series on Divine Mercy with Ascension! Go to ascensionpress.com/pages/divinemercyvideos ( https://ascensionpress.com/pages/divinemercyvideos ) to sign up...

This week, I had the opportunity to chat with author Dawn Eden Goldstein about her newest book, Sunday Will Never Be the Same: A Rock & Roll Journalist Opens Her Ears to God. Dawn shares about her conversion from the Jewish faith to Christianity and eventually the Catholic Faith through the telling of the fascinating story of her life. The book is beautifully written and inspiring to readers a...

Holy cow, you guys! I heard from so many of you after my recent show (5 Ways to Grow in Patience) and you were all about the fasting. I mentioned in that show that I believe fasting is a helpful way to work on becoming more patient, and many of you wanted to know more. To begin, I share voice feedback from listener Andrea who wanted to know some practical tips for making fasting more successful. I...

We all have times in our lives and in our days where we feel worn out and sluggish, but today we will combat these feelings and boost our energy in simple ways! We talk a lot about things we should spend our time and energy on, things like: hospitality, prayer, exercise, and volunteering. These are all amazing things that we should strive for, but so often our energy is put into the things we have...

Patience is something we can all afford to work on. Not just because patience is a virtue and so we should avoid impatience, but because we can negatively affect relationships with others and our own happiness when we are impatient. This week, we also hear feedback from listener Aubrey who appreciated our recent show about talking to your kids about tough moral topics. Thank you, Aubrey! Is patien...

Let’s talk about having people over! Why does hospitality feel so hard sometimes? The idea of having people over is so nice. Chatting in my clean living room, having beautifully prepared hors d’ourves, not running ahead of someone to make sure the bathroom is presentable ... But that’s not reality. We don’t need to have perfect homes and lives to invite someone in. So just do it! Here are some tip...

Today we’re talking about how we can help the global Church through prayer and offerings, and the ministry of The Church in Need, a papal charity that supports the Catholic faithful and other Christians where they are persecuted, oppressed, or in pastoral need. My guest this week is Brooke Taylor, an author, runner, mama, wife, and a friend of mine. Brooke shares about her upcoming half marathon s...

Our guest this week is Andrea Zachman, author of The Sacred That Surrounds Us: How Everything in a Catholic Church Points to Heaven, a book that helps reveal our Catholic churches as shrines of devotion, packed with symbolism and deeper meaning. Andrea shares how she came to write this beautiful book, and gives us a behind-the-scenes look at its inspiring content. This book is a great gift idea an...

Inspired by Marie Kondo’s book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I’ve been thinking a lot about all the areas in my life that need decluttering. It’s not just my home that is in need of tidying, but also my digital space, and (most importantly) my spiritual space. To that end, I’m issuing a decluttering challenge for these three spaces—Marie Kondo style. Listen in to hear the challenges and...

This week my guest is Leila Miller, author of Made This Way: How to Prepare Kids To Face Today’s Tough Moral Issues. Leila is a wife, mom, grandma, and author who has been combating evil in the culture for decades. She speaks with wisdom and from experience on this important topic. We chat about how to talk to your kids about hard-hitting Catholic issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, pornograp...

Whether you think Valentine’s Day is romantic fun or an over-commercialized beast, we can use it as an opportunity to spread joy. This holiday seems reserved for couples without kids, but celebrating love is something everyone can partake in. So whether you celebrate on your own, with friends, a significant other, or kids, here are some ideas to spread joy on Valentine’s Day. Send anonymous Valent...

It’s that time of year when the thrill of setting our New Year health goals starts to wear off and we are in danger of giving up on exercise. Let’s talk about how to deal with the temptation to throw in the towel, why you might be giving up on exercise, and how to make adjustments to reach your goals! 1) Your workouts are too hard. Did you take on a big goal, expecting big results, only to find yo...

This week I am sharing a recent conversation I had with etiquette expert Jacquelyn Youst who talks about how her Catholic faith intersects with her work teaching children and business people about the basics of manners. I know you will find her inspiring! We touch base on cell phone etiquette, receiving compliments, gratitude, thank you notes, small talk, and other soft skills. Check out more of h...

Humility gets a bad rap. Too many of us associate being humble with weakness, insecurity, and unlikability. But that is not the case! Humility is a virtue that goes hand in hand with trust–which is what we have been talking about on the podcast recently. To see the full shownotes, listen to the episode at ascensionpress.com/girlfriends Get full access to Girlfriends After Hours at daniellebean.sub...

FOMO stands for “fear of missing out”. It refers to the times we feel left out or like we’re not measuring up to others. This happens a lot when we compare ourselves to the carefully crafted versions of people on social media. FOMO happens when we pay too much attention to other people’s lives. This attention can make us insecure or jealous, and it almost always distracts from where we should be f...